article is here : http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-zuk19dec19,0,4638124.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
article found in the LA Times website (opinion section)
Synopsis: Marlene Zuk's article begins with the scientific finding that by changing the level of a chemical in a fly, the fly can be made to court other flies of the same gender. She then begins to explain that the fact that the flies' sexual orientation being changed is not the important thing, but rather that now scientists understand more about genetics. Not only that, but that the animals can have their programing altered. She also mentions how any animal's behaviour depends on the surroundings as well and not only the genetics. She also stated, "...I'll admit that it's entertaining to imagine popping a pill to swing one way for a party, the other for a get-together at grandma's. But that dystopian possibility probably isn't in the cards. The truth is that chemicals no more control who we are sexually attracted to than they do anything else." and concluded her article with "I don't know about you, but I find the thought of a cockroach flitting from flower to flower a lot more unsettling than straight/gay flies."
Tone : The tone seems to be serious and simple.But the tone seemed to lean toward irritated or angry with the entire homosexuality issue.
Question: Now that scientists can tamper with the behaviour of animals, should they continue to do this type of research or stop changing nature?
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5 comments:
I disagree with you on the tone of it. It seemed like a rather serious look at the issue, with its implications, without much bias. I personally think that there isnt anything necessarily wrong with messing around with nature....though I dont see the point in changing sexual preference like that...seems like the fundamentalist bible thumping lunatics will love it.
First of all it's amazing they can do something like this but I do believe that they should leave nature alone and let it run its course. It seems they have no solid reason to change these flies so it's pointless to run experiments like this one. How could we possibly benefit?
nature should be left alone. its like that episode of the outer limits where the whole human race was wiped out by a dna destroying virus caused by human attempts at genetic prefection.
well i think this is a great discovery for the scientific world. i just hope people don't think that they can use this discovery to make/turn people straight.
As disturbing as this experiment may sound, it is quite interesting to see that a simple chemical change can cause a fly to be attracted to it's own gender. This however makes me wonder about the theory that "homosexuals are born that way." I aso worry that such an experiment will later be used to rid homosexuals of their sexual preferences. muahahaha.. after all the fly was able to return to its heterosexualness...
-Posted by Ashley O.
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